SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : 2-A Wild Card : Irvine’s Brocoff Blanks Woodbridge, 7-0

Senior Brian Brocoff threw a four-hitter to lead Irvine High School to a 7-0 victory over Woodbridge in a Southern Section 2-A wild-card playoff game Wednesday at Irvine.

Brocoff (4-3) walked two and struck out four as Irvine (14-13) advanced to the first round Friday against Sea View League champion Saddleback at Saddleback.

Irvine scored two runs in the first inning off losing pitcher Jimmy Burke (2-1). George Koutures and Brocoff walked, then Koutures scored from second when George Allen bobbled a ground ball by Jeff Walters.

Terry Rahmatulla drove in the other first-inning run with a single.

Irvine increased the lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning. Jim Enochs had an infield hit and moved to third on a double by Koutures. Marlon Brigas drove in Enochs with a ground out and Brocoff singled home Koutures.

Irvine scored two more runs in the fifth when designated hitter Mike Nau doubled home Nick Nikolenko and Enochs.

Irvine added another run in the sixth when Jeff Walters doubled and scored on Nikolenko’s double.

“I’m trying to look at this objectively, but I thought we played very, very well today,” said Bob Flint, Irvine coach. “We hit well, we didn’t strike out and we didn’t make any errors.”

First baseman Ron Lee had two of the four hits for Woodbridge (14-12).